By Harriet Blake

The benefits of a rooftop garden are not only environmental, but extend to the human spirit. At the Ulfelder Healing Garden atop Massachusetts General Hospital’s Yawkey Cancer Center, those benefits are realized.

The 6,300-square-foot foliage-filled healing garden gives cancer patients and their families a much-needed retreat and helps the hospital conserve energy at the same time. It is just one of the many Boston sites included on tours during this week’s GreenBuild International Conference, a large annual gathering of builders and remodellers sponsored by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).

Bringing green design into health care and hospital building is a growing trend across the U.S.. At Dell Children’s Medical Center, which opened in Austin, Texas in 2007, green has been the focus from the ground up. In fact, says spokesperson Matilda Sanchez, the hospital is waiting to hear if they have achieved “platinum status” in the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) program sponsored by the USGBC. Among the many green elements at Dell is a four-story interior healing garden with a waterfall that starts on the top floor, as well as a three-acre healing garden with a labyrinth that can be seen from many of the hospital rooms.

“Dell is setting the bar for hospital buildings,” says Sanchez. “While we were still under construction, many other hospitals looked at what we were doing. There was even a delegation from Australia who came to get ideas.”

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By Julie Bonnin

Attention all recycling innovators: they city of Houston has launched a nationwide contest designed to create new markets for recycled tree limbs and make use of the mountains of woody vegetation left in Hurricane Ike’s wake.

With enough tree trunks, branches and other tree remnants to fill Houston’s Astrodome nearly four times, the debris- 5.6 million cubic yards — far surpasses what can be used locally for mulch.

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By Kelly Rondeau

Three major charities — The World Wildlife Fund, the Lance Armstrong Foundation and ninemillion.org– benefited from the Nike + Human Race 10K on Sunday, an event billed as the World’s Biggest Race that involved 25 races in 25 cities around the globe.

Thousands of runners turned out for the 10K in the North American host cities of New York City, Los Angeles, Portland, Chicago and Austin, as well as around the world in other major cities such as Paris, Rome, Madrid, Vancouver, Lima, Instanbul, Singapore, Melbourne, Warsaw, and Seoul. Collectively, the runners logged more than 3 million miles, according to Nike, with each mile producing more money toward the three charities.

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Are you looking to get down and dirty for the 39th Annual Earth Day? The commemoration brings a collection of great festivals this weekend (April 20). It’s also a time to renew our personal commitment to the health of the planet. So come with us as we talk about projects you can do, like composting, [...]

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Earth Day is just weeks away. Give us a call and let the world know how you’re planning to commemorate Earth Day on April 22. And click the play button below to hear what others are saying:

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By Barbara Kessler

Focus the Nation, a collective effort to find global warming solutions that’s being called the country’s largest ever national teach-in, kicks off tonight with a free web cast available to anyone who wants to participate.

The web cast will focus on the “2% Solution,” which refers to the need to decrease carbon emissions by two percent each year for the next 40 years to reach the goal scientists advocate of an 80 percent reduction by 2050. To view the virtual web cast, which begins at 8 p.m. EST, you’ll need to go the Earth Day Television website and download the Flash player.

Focus the Nation: Global Warming Solutions for America will continue on Thursday with hundreds of gatherings at college campuses across the country involving millions of students and faculty and at least 50 U.S. Congressional representatives including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), according to Focus the Nation. Find events on the map the FTN website.

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By Shermakaye Bass

Some of America’s most progressive and ambitious movements have incubated on college campuses: Civil rights, anti-war, anti-Apartheid, nuclear disarmament, to name a few. And now, global climate change.

It should come as no surprise, then, that a professor, Eban Goodstein of Lewis & Clark College in Portland, conceived “Focus the Nation: Global Warming Solutions for America,” a national teach-in and series of public forums (both actual and virtual) set for Jan. 30-Feb. 1.

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